The invention relates generally to dental tools and more particularly to dental tools adapted to remove a surface contaminant from a surface of a tooth.
As is known in the art, a dentist uses a rubber prophy cup while preparing a tooth for receiving permanent restorative material such as a crown. First, the dentist drills (i.e., sculpts) the tooth into a shape appropriate for receiving the restorative material. The dentist then takes an impression of the tooth. The impression is sent to a dental laboratory for fabricating the permanent restorative material.
The permanent restorative material must mate exactly with the prepared tooth. While the permanent restorative material is being fabricated at the dental laboratory, temporary restorative material is affixed to the prepared tooth. The dentist uses temporary dental cement to attach the temporary restorative material to the tooth. The temporary dental cement causes mechanical retention between the temporary restorative material and the tooth and is used while the permanent restorative material (i.e., the crown) is being constructed. Subsequently, the dentist removes the temporary restorative material, exposing pieces of the temporary dental cement and other material requiring debridement from the tooth's surface before the permanent restorative material may be applied.
The dentist carries out such debridement using a slurry and the rubber prophy cup driven by a rotary dental handpiece. The slurry is created by mixing water and flour of pumice. After dipping the rubber prophy cup into the slurry, the dentist applies the rubber prophy cup to the tooth's surface. The rubber prophy cup is rotated by the rotary dental handpiece, resulting in at least partial debridement of the tooth's surface. Next, the dentist rinses the slurry from the tooth's surface and rinses the rubber prophy cup. To apply a disinfecting agent (e.g., a chemoactive liquid, gel, or paste, or a bactericidal agent such as but not limited to: Peridex.RTM., a 1.23% solution of chlorhexidine gluconate by Proctor & Gamble; or Concepsis.RTM. scrub by Ultradent Products Inc. of South Jordan, Utah) for disinfecting, the dentist then dips the rubber prophy cup into the disinfecting agent and applies the rubber prophy cup to the tooth's surface again. Alternatively, the disinfecting agent is applied using small cotton pellets that are soaked in the disinfecting agent and then scrubbed over the tooth's surface. Finally, the dentist rinses the tooth's surface again and permanently attaches the permanent restorative material to the tooth.
The rubber prophy cup is sufficiently non-abrasive to avoid damaging the tooth's surface. However, the rubber prophy cup typically has a large size (such as a width or diameter of 6 to 10 millimeters) that prevents the rubber prophy cup from getting between teeth and causes parts of the tooth's surface to be left undebrided and undisinfected. In particular, such parts include interdental and intracoronal cavity surfaces.
Some characteristics of the rotary dental handpiece and of connecting a tool to the handpiece are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,560 to Lowder et al, which is incorporated by reference.